


Until You Spread Your Wings

by Purple_Space_Cats



Series: A Paladin's Wings [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Avian Hunk, Avian Lance - Freeform, Avian Pidge, Avian Shiro, Avians, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Hugs, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Kuron is Shiro (Voltron)'s Clone, Kuron is mean, Lance is a pretty birb, M/M, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), There should be a tag for that, Wing Hugs, Winged Hunk, Winged Lance, Winged Paladins, Winged Pidge, alternate universe - avians, avian keith, avian paladins, winged keith, winged shiro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 22:51:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14603463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_Space_Cats/pseuds/Purple_Space_Cats
Summary: You'll never know how far you can fly.After meeting his mother, the young avian Keith Kogane returns to his friends with Team Voltron to recover. Things only get worse from there, unfortunately for him.Set at the end of Season Five!





	Until You Spread Your Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He finally hopped out of the shuttle, shaking his head a little and giving the dark wings a careful flick. Keith's eyes blinked in wide surprise when he noticed that _everyone_ was waiting there, offering them a small smile and a slightly sheepish wave. "Hey, guys."

Keith sighed as he ran one hand through his hair, wings drooping partially.

Any of the other paladins could look at him and see just how dead tired he was, at least… they would have, had he been back on the Castle-Ship with his fellow Earthling Avians. Allura and Coran didn’t have wings, but everyone else did, like everyone on Earth. No one was born wingless, not that he knew of.

Keith forced himself to focus, folding his inky-black wings to his back. His Marmoran suit wasn’t the nicest against his feathers, but he didn’t have the energy to change. He’d been nesting recently, a behavior only done by couples readying for a baby or someone under intense stress, looking for some kind of familiar comfort from when they were little kids and slept in a nest with their parents. None of the Blade knew anything about Avians, though, so he was safe from their concern… until he brought Krolia home. His _mother_ home.

And she… she knew all about wings, about Avian behaviors, and as soon as she discovered how poorly he was doing here, she arranged for him to take a visit back to the Paladins of Voltron.

Now he was a little nervous, not that anyone could get him to admit it, broad, inky-black wings folding tighter against his back. Their shuttle docked and he stepped out slowly, biting his lip. He did all he could to keep his wings from twitching nervously… what if the other paladins didn’t want to see him? Would they comment on the dulled state of his wings?

When he’d left, his feathers were all healthy and gleamed with an array of multiple colors in the light, like raven feathers. Now they were dulled, probably a bit coarser, he wasn’t sure.

He finally hopped out of the shuttle, shaking his head a little and giving the dark wings a careful flick. Keith's eyes blinked in wide surprise when he noticed that _everyone_ was waiting there, offering them a small smile and a slightly sheepish wave. "Hey, guys."

His wings twitched, pulled back into an uncomfortable position which he ignored altogether. If he let them flare out, every one of his emotions would be able to be read via them - and besides, he was sure his wingspan had somehow expanded back with the Blade. He might hit someone.

He was _not_ expecting Lance to be the first one to greet him, though. Keith’s quiet words had seemed to shatter whatever odd silence the opening of the shuttle, and suddenly the Blue-turned-Red Paladin was lunging forward, sweeping Keith up into a hug and cocooning the half-Galra in his wings. _What?_ This was Lance. Lance hugging him, Lance of all people. He almost jolted in surprise before giving in and wrapping his arms around him in return, wings unfurling slightly.

Lance’s wings retreated a little and Keith almost missed them, though they were quickly replaced by a warm body sweeping him up into a hug from behind while Lance still embraced his front. _Hunk._ Pidge joined the embrace soon after, and Shiro gravitated over. Keith staggered as Coran slammed his way into their hug and Allura drifted in a few moments later, smiling fondly as the tangled wings of the paladins adjusted to encompass her as well.

Maybe he wasn’t the most comfortable with physical contact, but this was okay. Keith closed his eyes for a moment and just breathed, wings twitching slightly at the uncomfortable position Keith had forced them into before Lance had got to him.

The moment of comfort and quiet was gone all too soon. Everyone began pulling back and Lance had the decency to look a little sheepish for the way he’d practically tackled Keith, wrapping him into his wings the way an older sibling might cradle a younger.

“So, I guess you know we missed you, buddy?” Lance offered weakly, making Keith crack the hints of a smile and nod.

Pidge grinned, her honey-brown-colored wings flicking behind her. She’d grown so much… they all had. They’d all changed. Pidge had lost a lot of her downy, fluffy feathers, smooth primaries and other flying feathers growing in as well. Her wings were the color of her hair, matching them quite well. They were still peppered with soft down, though she could clearly fly far more strongly than she had been able to when Keith had left, thanks to those flight feathers.

Hunk’s wings were still a steady, deep cocoa brown, dark as rich earth and soft. They weren’t the neatest, but they were broad and warm and great for wrapping around someone and giving them a strong hug. His feathers seemed slightly less ruffled than usual, as if someone had been taking care of them or he hadn’t been baking as often - he doubted that. Hunk had a tendency to flap his wings when he baked, resulting in the ruffling and specks of the alien flour that was a bright pink to get caught in his feathers. Even now, he could see some flecking the very bottom of his feathers.

Shiro’s wings were a deep, steely gray, flecked with black. They’d been just that before Kerberos, but after the mission, they were streaked through with white. Two neat rows at the bottoms, turning all of his longer feathers white to match the tuft in his hair, and a smattering of random white feathers. Despite that, his wings managed to stay symmetrical and Keith would be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed, even if Shiro had no control over the way his wings looked.

Lance… Lance had brown wings, chocolate-colored, just a little bit darker than his hair. It was speckled with all kinds of shades of brown and cream, almost resembling the wings of a red-tailed hawk in pattern. But he had so many colors, so much color, that not even a beautiful bird like a red-tail could show him up.

Keith’s wings were black. When they were healthy, when _he_ was healthy, they shone black-purple and black-blue and were soft to the touch, like everyone else’s wings. Right now they were coarse and rough, he could tell when the tip of his wing twitched and brushed against Pidge’s hand and she blinked in surprise at the feeling.

“Come on, let us catch up somewhere slightly more comfortable than the hangars.” Allura suggested, her bright blue eyes warm and welcoming. Keith nodded slowly. That sounded like a plan to him.


End file.
